A wet shave razor cartridge is usually composed of a cartridge housing, blades having cutting edges, a guard area in front of the blades having a guard structure and a cap area having a shaving aid or lubricating strip disposed behind the blades. Each component plays a unique role during shaving.
Turning to the guard area specifically, as it is known in the art, a guard structure of a razor cartridge typically includes resilient or soft material, often arranged in the form of flexible fins or protrusions, disposed in front of the blades to engage the skin's surface by stimulating and stretching the skin in front of the blades, tending to improve comfort while also properly positioning the skin for cutting of hairs. It is generally known in the art that fin guards, placed in the front of the razor blades, play an important role for the engagement, alignment, and extension of hair while also managing the skin during shaving.
Most guard components on the market today are made of a thermoplastic or elastomeric material (e.g., flexible fins) with tips having acute points (e.g., sharp, pointy tips). The tips of the fins are generally disposed such that they are all at the same height or a portion of the fins are all at the same height for constant skin contact. In general, an elastomeric guard is generally costly and time-consuming to manufacture as most methods to assemble a guard generally require a two-color injection molding process in order to effectively bond the flexible material of the guard onto a generally hard plastic base material (e.g., polystyrene) of the overall housing on which the guard is typically supported.
It would be desirable to reduce the cost and time to manufacture the guard structure of the razor cartridge while still providing adequate shaving performance attributes such as skin management, comfort, efficiency and safety.